Love Makes a Difference
by fringeperson
Summary: It is truly amazing how having a little love and understanding can change things so dramatically, even if some things never truly change. Taser Tricks, don't own, complete.
1. Chapter 1

There was a smile on Frigga's face as she watched her husband training their sons in the courtyard, and she sighed at the sight. But it was not a content sigh, nor a happy smile. The sigh was frustrated and the smile was one of exasperation. Oh, she loved them, all three of them, always... but simply loving them was just not enough some days.

This was the third time that she had visited the courtyard during training time, her needlework absently sitting across her lap as she watched, and Frigga was not pleased with what she saw. Not wholly, at any rate. Oh, Thor was doing well, and she was proud of him and pleased for him, but Loki was doing _just as well_ , and yet Odin didn't give him half the praise he did the elder of the two boys.

It was blatantly obvious who Odin's favourite child was, and the rest of Asgard would follow his example. Thor would be the favoured prince to the rest of the realm. He was the elder, the heir, and he was Odin's favourite – and so he must of course be better.

Even if Loki was his equal, despite the disparity in their ages.

Frigga held a secret close to her heart. Just as Odin had a favoured child, so too did she. But it was not the same child. No, as terrible as Odin might think it, Frigga loved the foundling that he had brought back from the war against the Jotuns with greater intensity than she loved the child she had birthed herself.

Thor had... well, he'd been expected, anticipated, but Frigga had not felt ready for motherhood when she realised the stirrings inside of her. Odin had been too pleased to notice her unease and reluctance, and when Frigga had first laid eyes on her son, most of it had faded anyway.

But taking Loki in as her son had been her choice. Hers. Odin had brought the infant back from the war front with the intention of giving him to one of Frigga's attendants to raise, in the event that the under-sized Jotun child would some day be useful to them. Frigga had taken the babe from her husband and named him Loki herself, and nothing Odin could say would dissuade her.

Of course, for the sake of the kingdom, they kept their disagreements over the babe private. But Frigga had claimed Loki as hers then, and it only took a hundred years for Odin to get used to the idea and stop fighting her on it – though clearly he still favoured Thor, the child of his blood.

Frigga watched sadly as Loki was pushed slowly into the shadows. Odin had always cast a large shadow, but he was careful to give Thor some sun. Sunlight enough to cast his own shadow, certainly, and Odin looked to be making that shadow to grow as large as his.

But Loki. Frigga thought her heart might break if her little Loki could not be given any sun of his own – for sun was needed to grow, and grow strong.

The training was done for the day, and Odin clapped Thor on the shoulder proudly. Father and son went together into the palace – never noticing that Frigga had been audience, or that Loki had been left behind.

"You are his equal," Frigga said firmly.

Loki's head snapped up from where it had been bowed, contemplating the weapon he had been training with, and his beautiful green eyes loked with Frigga's.

"Odin is missing one of his eyes, and so he does not see as well as he once did," Frigga stated plainly, and a new smile danced about her lips. One that said she knew her comment was nigh-on traitorous, but she didn't care, and that her having said it at all could be their little secret.

Loki, bless his heart, bit back a smile of his own and ducked his head again.

"So, with one eye, Odin sees that he has one son, who he shall shape in his own image. I see two, and I will not see my Loki forgotten," Frigga declared, soft but firm. "Come with me," she bid, hand out to her son. "I will teach you things that Odin has forgotten the importance and value of."

Loki looked up with surprise and intrigue. Yes, her son was an inquisitive, curious child. He did not hesitate to cross the courtyard and slip his delicate little hand into hers.

"This shall be your first lesson at my knee, my son," Frigga said as she sat Loki down at a table in her private chambers and wove a spell between them. "A spell to conceal you from Heimdall's sight."

Loki's eyes widened in awe. It was well known that Heimdall saw _all_ things. To have a way to block his eyes... It was nearly beyond comprehension.

Frigga laughed softly at the look on her son's face.

"Don't look so surprised," she teased gently. "Heimdall helped to make this spell. After all, just because he is _able_ to see everything, does not mean that he _wishes_ to. This is a spell passed from one woman to another, generally, so that we may keep our secrets from all men. But you, my Loki, you will learn this spell, and then I shall teach you so many other, much more wondrous things."

~oOo~

"Mother, why doesn't Father love me as he loves Thor?" Loki asked one day, his voice soft and his eyes rimmed with red as he sniffled and shuffled his way into her chambers. "I fulfil the demands of the training just as well as my brother, don't I? But I never get even a word of recognition, never mind the praise that he heaps upon Thor."

Frigga sighed, and gestured for her son to come to her. He now a century older than the first time she had drawn him from training in the courtyard, but still small enough that she was able to cradle him on her lap.

"Loki, my precious, wonderful son. I have told you that Odin sees only one son through his one eye," she said. Then she hesitated a moment, in thought. She decided that it was needful for her child to know the truth. Or at least some of it. Odin had not told her everything when he brought Loki back from the war, so she could not tell Loki everything. But she could tell him some.

"It is that he still does not wholly accept you as his," Frigga said softly.

"Why would Father not accept me?" Loki questioned, truly confused.

Frigga sighed, and wrapped her arms more tightly around her son. "Because you are not his," she whispered.

Loki gasped a pained gasp of a breaking heart and a shattered world.

"M-mother?" he quavered.

"Odin found you as a babe in the wake of a battle. He did not tell me which, and if he either suspects or knows you parentage, he has not told me that either," Frigga said softly. This was all true. She had suspicions of her own, but Odin had not spoken, and she would likewise keep her silence on her guesses. "His intent was to give you to one of my handmaidens, but I claimed you for myself instead. You are the child of my heart, my Loki, even if you are not the flesh of my flesh. No matter what else may be, I am and always will be your mother."

Loki buried his face in her shoulder then, and sobbed, and held tight to her. His world was shattered completely. He would never have the love of his father, because to Odin, he was not his son. He would never be equal to Thor, because he was not truly his brother. He was a foundling. A nothing, left to die in the aftermath of a war, for Odin would have only taken him if he had been abandoned.

But he was Frigga's son. She said so. She was his mother. That was enough.

After a time of crying, Loki finally wiped away his tears and obediently blew his nose when Frigga held a kerchief up before his face. Then he plastered a very fake smile upon his face, and begged for a new lesson in magic.

Before the day was done, the smile was genuine once more. His world was still not stable, but Loki could and would go on. He had his mother. That was enough.

~oOo~

"It is not enough that I be as good as Thor," Loki growled as he threw a ceramic vase – filled with water and flowers – against the wall. "No, if I am to be even comparable, to _begin_ to approach being his equal, then I must surpass him in all things! And even then, I am sure I would not be considered Thor's equal."

"You are better than him," Frigga corrected softly, and laid soft-but-calloused hands on her son's shoulders. "You are the younger, and you lack the advantage of Odin's blood, but you match him in every feat of strength demanded of you both in the training fields. In intellect, you surpass him by miles. Thor is charming, but he hasn't your wit, your intelligence, your thirst for understanding and knowledge. He lacks tact, where you are all that is subtlety when you wish it. Thor's only ability with magic of any kind is what he is able to conduct through Mjolnir. He is unable to conduct even the simplest of spells, not as you are gifted, my Loki."

Frigga's voice was soothing, measured, low and calm. And calming.

Loki covered one of her hands with his, and breathed slowly in and out, releasing his frustration. A wave of his hand, and the broken vase was repaired. The water and flowers returned to their containment, the mess cleaned away.

"You need an outlet," Frigga discerned clearly. A secret little smile danced upon her lips. "You have my permission."

Loki frowned and looked over his shoulder to his mother. "To do what?" he asked, confused.

Frigga smiled more widely. "Whatever you want," she said firmly, and turned her son to face her, still smiling at him. "Cause mischief, set up pranks and jokes, set out to explore the realms and meet new faces. Find new books, make new discoveries, invent something entirely new if it would give you pleasure. You are a creative mind in a world that has settled down and feels no more need for any kind of creativity."

Loki wrapped his arms around his mother's waist and bent his head to rest on her shoulder. Strictly speaking, he was several centuries 'too old' for hugs. But he loved his mother, and he was truly a tactile creature, though he hid it well. He loved hugs, and he got them only from her.

~oOo~

As the god of mischief, chaos, madness, word-smithing and hearth fires, Loki wasn't all that sure about settling himself into a routine. He wouldn't like to become too predictable. On the other hand, if he spent most of his days setting up a prank or five, and then the other two days away from Asgard while tempers cooled and he missed the more violent fall-out of his fun... well, why not make it the same two days every week? Everybody would soon get to know that there would be no point in seeking him out on those days, and his mother had suggested he travel, among all of her other suggestions.

Loki started with simple pranks, and the nearer realms. He bleached Thor's favourite red cape so that it was a cheerful, sugary, ridiculous pink. He visited Alfenheim. He slipped laxative into Odin's mead. He went to Svartenheim. He bespelled the hair of the Warriors Three, so that Volstagg's red mane was black, Fandra's blonde locks (including his moustache and the bit of fluff on his chin) were bright red, and Hogun's severe black style was blonde curls. Loki went to Muspelheim.

A few centuries passed in that manner, until the day he decided to travel all the way down to Midgard. Just on a whim. Loki was surprised to learn that he quite liked the place. Innovation and invention was encouraged, intelligence was valued just as much as physical might, and there were libraries and museums full of knowledge open to all interested persons.

Two centuries into Midgard's various libraries around the world, and Loki was quietly enjoying a copy of _The Prince_ that had clearly been donated to the library by someone who no longer needed the heavily scribbled-upon copy. Or had been added to the collection when the owner had left it behind by mistake and hadn't returned in search of it for over a year. Loki was rather enjoying the notes in the margins when a sound roused him.

Normally, noises could not and would not pull him from his reading. He had, after all, began his literary interests in Asgard and the library there was near where the Valkyries trained, occasionally under his mother's guidance. But this particular clattering thump, soft though it was, happened inches from his elbow.

A bag, with a number of badges and pins attached, sat on the desk beside him. It was soon joined by an inch-thick text that was thumped down beside the bag, and a much slimmer volume that was lightly slapped down on top of that.

 _Sociology_ by Giddens, sixth edition, was the thicker text. _The Communist Manifesto_ by Karl Marx, translated of course, was the thinner.

The badges that covered the brown, lumpy bag had various quotes and images, many of which referenced television shows, movies, and internet tropes – and only half of which Loki truly understood. Another quarter he vaguely understood, but he was fairly sure he lacked the full context. His favourite among the badges – so far as he was able to take in with only a cursory glance – was one that said _Chaos, Panic, & Disorder. My Work Here Is Done._ That particular badge was actually green with black writing on, and with a gilded border. His colours.

Loki looked up to see who owned the bag and was at least making use of the books. It was a woman. Girl. Woman-child? It was so hard to tell on Midgard any more when a female was considered no longer a child but instead a woman. Once, it was simply a matter of her reaching child-bearing age. In this age, it was much more subjective.

All the same, Loki guessed her to be in her first year of study at the college that he was able to see through the window and across the road. Second if she had skipped a year at some point in her schooling and matriculated early.

"Hey," she said, and an apologetic smile tugged at her lips. "Did I disturb you? Sorry about that. Uh, mind if I sit here? I should probably have asked first, but I didn't want to interrupt you, and you looked like the apocalypse could happen and you wouldn't notice, you were so deep in your book."

"Go ahead," Loki agreed easily. Then... "First year across the road?" he asked, wanting to know if his guess was right.

She nodded. "Yep," she said, and unlike so many of her contemporaries, she _didn't_ pop the P. "And you? You don't look like a college student, if you don't mind me saying."

Loki chuckled. "Considering most male college students look like drunken frat boys or brick-headed jocks, no, I don't mind at all," he said with a smirk.

She giggled a little, but quickly bit down on her very full lower lip and ducked her head.

"Oh, did I stumble upon a girl who was forced into a sorority by her parents, but enjoys mocking the system?" Loki probed curiously. He set his book down on the table beside him and turned in his seat to give the young lady his full attention.

"Ah, no," was the answer. "At least, to the first. I do enjoy mocking though. And I've got a small collection of disposable cameras in my dorm room for when I sneak into their parties, so that I can have blackmail when they take over their parent's very successful companies."

Loki barked out a sharp, delighted "Ha!" – though he was careful to keep the volume down, so as to not draw the ire of any librarians that might be lurking between the shelves nearby. This, it seemed, was a mind that he could appreciate. And why hadn't _he_ ever thought of taking pictures of his victims? Oh, wait, blackmail would do him no good most of the time. It would only get him challenged to a spar or duel. He could beat most everybody in Asgard in a fight if called to do so, but he hadn't the taste for such things as Thor did.

She shrugged – and it was either her being demure and modest, or it was a what-can-you-do-but-make-the-best-of-it sort of motion.

"You haven't answered my question though," she said. "What about you? What do you do?"

"Now, that depends entirely on what day it is," Loki answered with an easy smile. "Mondays and Tuesdays I set up pranks around the palace. Wednesdays and Thursdays I escape to a different country to avoid the fall-out. Fridays I spend with my mother, hearing about said fall-out second hand and making sure I'm not falling behind in my duties to the court, and on Saturdays and Sundays I alternately hand my brother and his friends their arses in the training courts, and pretend that they've handed me mine."

The girl blinked. "Palace?" she repeated, having latched onto that one word and probably not heard all that much beyond it.

Loki chuckled. "Palace," he confirmed.

A nervous light entered the girl's eyes. "Suddenly I'm worried," she admitted. "Cinderella was never really my style, and this meeting has all the right fixings for it."

"And what Disney Princess was your style?" Loki asked slyly, a wicked little smirk tugging at his lips.

"Belle," the girl answered. "At least she was interested in books. And while everybody goes on about the Stockholm Syndrome in that movie, I always counter that there's a better case for Lima Syndrome, or the Beast would have never let her go in the first place – and Belle didn't admit to any feelings for him until _after_ she wasn't his prisoner any more."

Loki chuckled. "A fascinating argument," he allowed. Quickly, he looked the girl up and down – clean jeans, a likely home-knitted cardigan, a bright green t-shirt with only the middle part of the slogan visible across her not inconsiderable bust. Bright eyes behind simple black frames and clear skin. He extended a hand. "Loki," he said. "Prince of a place you've probably never heard of."

She set her hand in his. "Darcy," she answered. "Political Science major at the college across the road."

"Oh, then you'll probably be interested in my reading material," Loki said, and nudged the copy of _The Prince_ that he'd been reading a little closer to her bag.

"Not until next semester," she answered with a teasing, sarcastic little smile.

~oOo~

After that, Loki made it a habit to return to that particular library every week, and every week, Darcy would take the table next to him. They would talk a little, she'd get some study done, or make varying amounts of progress on assignments that the professors gave her. After two months of this, Loki decided to invite the young woman to have a drink with him in a slightly hippy café down the street a little.

She agreed, and long, interesting, and extremely varied discussions over strange teas (sacred basil tea, white peony tea, iron monk tea, monkey-picked phoenix tea... just to name a few) was added to their weekly routine.

Take-out in the park followed another couple of months later, and around about six months after they'd first met, Darcy invited Loki back to her dorm room.

~oOo~

"Loki? What are we?" Darcy asked absently as she lay back on her bed, naked as the day she was born. Then again, so was the other person sharing her bed.

"Eternally under-estimated, under-valued, or under-appreciated by very nearly everybody else that we know," Loki answered easily and without much thought. Utterly honest as he wasn't with most others of his acquaintance. "And occasionally very, very kinky."

Darcy huffed, and poked him in the side. "Very funny, Trickster-god. I meant _us_ , as in to each other, a definition of whatever our relationship is," she elaborated. "Friends-with-benefits? Dating? Or am I just your weekly booty-call?" she asked.

Loki frowned and his brow furrowed in thought and confusion. "What brings about this particular line of enquiry?" he probed carefully. He was familiar with all terms used, but was reluctant to commit until he had some idea of the sort of answer that Darcy was hoping for. For all he knew, she could be hoping he'd say booty-call, when he more than just kind-of wanted to say dating-with-intent-to-commit. He hoped she didn't want him to say booty-call. Much as he enjoyed the sex (and he enjoyed it _very_ much) he also enjoyed their debates and discussions. Those times when sex wasn't on their minds in the least, and they were still having a fantastic time. Their occasional movie nights were pretty fun too. Popcorn and snuggling. Very nice.

"Well, let's see. Since we met in the library a bit over two years ago, you've regularly shown up every Wednesday-slash-Odin's Day around dinner time, stayed until at least noon on Thurs-slash-Thor's Day, and between the mind-blowing like-wow sex that gives whole new meaning to your titles 'god of mischief' and 'silver-tongue' we have the most intense discussions I'm ever going to get with anybody that doesn't have ten different PhD's," Darcy rattled out – and Loki realised just how much she had come to really know about him in such a (for him) short space of time.

"So, I'm asking, and probably should have at least eighteen months ago: what are we?"

Loki chuckled softly, pulled himself up and then over so that he was holding himself up on his forearms above Darcy, and bent his neck to kiss her.

"Well, how would you feel about me asking you to marry me?" he offered when he pulled back.

Darcy's eyes – which had closed in bliss at the kiss – popped wide open so that she could give him a completely shocked stare. Then the shock slowly faded when she realised that he was being completely serious, and with a grin that nearly split her face she rolled them both over and impaled herself on him enthusiastically – winning a groan from her lover.

"Two-point-five kids and a white picket fence?" she asked teasingly as she slowly began to ride him.

"Two or three, but I will not have _half_ a child," Loki answered with surprising coherence for a man who looked like he was nearing Valhalla. "I had enough nightmares when you first shared Midgar's version of the Eddas with me. I have no desire to father a child that looks as Hel is described to. Nor any of the others, for that matter. And much as my shape-shifting ability entertains you my love, I have no particular desire to birth an eight-legged foal."

Though, after that discussion, he'd gone back to Asgard and for the first time ever, had approached Odin's chosen steed. The animal was far more intelligent than any of the other horses in the stables, and that had made Loki worry – and seek out the true Eddas in the libraries of Asgard. It had not been fun reading. Thankfully, no mind magicks had been used on him to forget having been raped by a horse, nor bearing Sleipnir, but his namesake, Loki-Loptr from the time before, had certainly not been so lucky.

"And if you insist on a white picket fence, then I will retaliate by filling all water-bombs with paint when playing with said children," he added, driving the unpleasant thoughts from his mind.

Darcy laughed, laced her fingers behind Loki's neck, and kissed him.

Then she stopped as a thought hit her – and the complete cessation of participation from her end caused Loki to choke out a needy, pained whimper.

"Sorry," Darcy said, and rolled her hips. "It just occurred to me that I should probably introduce you to my folks first. How soon do you want to get married?" It was, after all, only three weeks until Christmas. One week before Darcy would be leaving behind her one-person dorm-room at her college campus and returning home to her parents for the holiday.

"Tell them when you call them next. I'll come on Odin's Day like I always do, and I'll meet them then," Loki promised. "Then we can run away and get married in Vegas on New Year's Day."

"Can we have the proper, big-white-wedding on our anniversary?" Darcy asked. "I'd be happy to marry you tomorrow, but Ma will want wedding photos. Besides, one more year, and I'll be legally old enough to drink."

"A solemnification of our vows for us, wedding as far as your parents know," Loki agreed. "I'll follow you home for the holiday this year, shall I?"

"That holiday will be Christmas," Darcy warned.

"Not a holiday celebrated in Asgard," Loki countered. "I won't be missed. I know your customs quite well by this time, though. I won't screw up," he promised.

Their sentences were getting shorter as their need began to wind tighter and tighter in their bellies.

"Okay," Darcy agreed. "You got a deal. Meet the folks at Christmas, marry on New Year's Day in Vegas."

Loki lunged at that, and suddenly Darcy was on her back beneath him. Then he proceeded to blow her mind – five times. Personally, he thought Darcy gave him too much credit for the 'mind-blowing like-wow sex'. After all, as the saying went, it took two to tango, and it was only because Darcy was somehow miraculously able to keep up with him that he was able to give as good as he did.

As chests heaved, short of breath, in the afterglow, Loki realised he was going to have to introduce Darcy to his mother as well. His father could go uninformed until Ragnarok for all he cared, but his mother was a different matter.

~oOo~

"So, you said you had big news to share when you got home," Moe Lewis said when he'd taken his turn giving his baby girl a welcome-home hug.

"Moe! Let Darcy get inside before you start with the twenty-questions!" Bwana 'Bee' Lewis scolded her husband lightly. It was her side of the family that the less-than-standard naming tradition came from.

"Better done now," Darcy said with a laugh as she waved off her mother's objections. "Ma, Pa, I'd like you to meet Loki," she said, and reached back out the door to grab the hand of the Aesir who had been waiting, hidden behind the door-frame where he couldn't be seen.

"Well it's about time!" Bee declared, eyes bright as she took in the young man who could only be her little girl's beau.

Moe nodded in solemn agreement, his eyes fixed on their unexpected (though not unwelcome) guest. The way Darcy talked about him – and she did – they'd really expected to meet him a lot sooner. Darcy was normally very quick to bring boyfriends home. Perhaps that she'd waited two years with this one just meant it was actually serious this time.

"Do you have somewhere to stay while you're in town?" Moe asked Loki.

"Not yet," Loki answered. "But I am more than capable of making such arrangements. I wouldn't want to intrude on your family Christmas celebrations."

"What about your own family?" Bee asked carefully. "They won't mind you being away from them for the holiday?"

"My family doesn't celebrate Christmas," Loki answered easily. "I didn't even know about the holiday myself until I left home. I'll give my mother a quiet gift, privately, but she's likely to ask what the occasion is. My father and brother are completely oblivious to the holiday, and wouldn't welcome the idea of sentimental gift-giving that they would see it as."

"How could you possibly not be aware of Christmas?" Moe demanded, completely confused and utterly baffled that such a major holiday – not just religiously, but commercially – could have been missed. Maybe he could understand if Loki had come from Africa, or one of the "Stan countries", where 'western' holidays weren't really given the time of day except by the minority Christian groups. But... judging from Loki's accent, his family had clearly been living somewhere in the Western World.

How had such a thing happened?

"Well, I was raised in a very isolated little kingdom on the other side of the world that you've probably never heard of," Loki offered with an understanding curl to his lips. "We followed the old Norse traditions there."

"I guess that's where you got the name then," Bee said with an 'uh-huh' sort of expression on her face as she nodded slowly.

"Something like that," he allowed.

"Didn't stick to the doctor's prescribed due date?" Moe joked.

Loki winced.

"He's adopted Dad," Darcy said softly.

It was Moe's turn to wince, and Bee gave him a solid cuff about his ear.

"Darcy, you go get yourself settled in, and I'll supervise your father's grovelling apology to your young man," Bee instructed her daughter. "And likely the shovel talk too," she added with a knowing smirk, a lifted eyebrow, and a pointed roll of her eyes that settled them on her husband.

The man gave a weak chuckle and hopeful little smile under his wife's gaze.

Darcy shook her head fondly at both of her parents, kissed Loki's cheek, then dashed up the stairs with her bag.

Darcy didn't unpack though. She tossed her bag onto her bed and headed for the linen closet. She grabbed sheets and a towel and quickly set about setting up the guest bedroom for Loki's use. He wouldn't be sleeping in her bed while they were under her parent's roof, after all.

There were some lines that didn't get crossed, and some standards that had to be upheld.

Despite that, there was no way her parents would let him stay anywhere else in town when they had a spare room and she'd brought him home _at Christmas_ to meet them.

~oOo~

Christmas had gone well. Loki had gotten a nice (understated) bracelet for Bee and a build-your-own remote-control aeroplane kit for Moe – both things he knew from Darcy talking about them that they'd like. He'd also talked to them about his intent to take Darcy for a little vacation over New Years and – quote – ask her to marry him.

They, naturally, assumed he meant to propose, not stand with her before an officiate and exchange vows. Moe gave his consent, Bee got a bit teary and had said she'd start getting things together for organising the wedding. The Lewises weren't quite rich enough to afford a wedding planner. They were comfortable, but employing somebody else to organise things that Bee could do? They didn't see the point and (paying a good portion of Darcy's college tuition as they were so that there were fewer student loans for their baby girl to worry about) couldn't afford it anyway.

Moe had insisted that they'd still continue paying for Darcy's education too, even if Loki was able to support her – which he assured them he could.

Between Christmas and New Year, Loki was quick to spirit Darcy away to Asgard. She had to meet his mother.

A quick spell found Frigga in her private chambers. Alone. Perfect for an interview with her son – and his guest, who he had spelled to be hidden from the sight of all but himself and Frigga while they were in Odin's kingdom. Darcy, awed and unwilling to get separated from Loki lest she get lost in the truly massive palace, stuck close to his side as he led the way.

"Loki!" Frigga greeted happily. "You're back later than usual."

"Forgive me, Mother," he begged softly.

"I will if you introduce your friend," Frigga answered with a teasing smile.

Darcy figured right then and there that Loki got his sense of mischief from his ma.

"Mother, this is the Lady Darcy Lewis of Midgard," Loki presented. "I have told you of her before."

Frigga nodded and turned her smile on Darcy.

"It is good to finally meet you," she said. "Thank you for being such a good friend to my Loki."

"He's been pretty fantastic to me as well," Darcy answered with a little bit of a blush.

"Mother, I have asked the Lady Darcy to marry me. Her parents have consented without any knowledge of my true status, and Darcy had agreed. Will you give your blessing?"

Two hands snapped up to cover nose and mouth and hide tear-ducts. An apparently universal move that meant _I am too happy to even speak right now and I think I may cry_.

Darcy took that to mean that Frigga approved. The hug – strong, warm, and with an arm around each Loki and herself – solidified that supposition.

~oOo~

"We're goin' to the chapel and we're, gonna get ma-a-a-ried," Darcy sang as she and Loki cruised around Vegas looking for a twenty-four-hour celebrant they they could agree on. Loki had vetoed any Elvis look-a-likes as too tacky, even for them in Vegas. Darcy had countered no Village People – Loki honestly hadn't been about to argue, and would have said the same himself except that she beat him to it.

"Gee, I really love you and we're, gonna get ma-a-a-ried," Darcy continued happily.

"Going to the chapel of love," Loki finished with a chuckle, and steered her towards one that he'd spotted. The Little White Chapel.

Since it was daylight in Vegas, things were... a little quieter. Vegas was traditionally a 'night life' sort of city. During the day was when a good portion of people in Vegas _slept_. So, the somewhat-famous chapel was actually available. For a little while. They were able to squeeze Darcy into one of their many bridal gowns, Loki magicked himself into an appropriate tux, and they met before a non-costumed officiate in the area called the 'chapel of promises'.

They left as Mr and Mrs Loki Lewis. Yes, he took her last name. It would be troublesome for Darcy to have to change too much of her paperwork, and Loki honestly didn't have much – at least, that was truly legitimate. It was easier for him to take her name. Also, Aesir naming conventions... Yeah. No.

"How was that?" Loki asked with a smile as he sat on the edge of the bed in the honeymoon suite they'd booked for the single night they were in Vegas.

"Just tacky enough to stick," Darcy answered happily as she looked up at her new husband. She could hardly believe it. Just recently twenty, and already married to her man. A man she'd only met two years before and who, actually, wasn't human.

A laugh escaped Loki at her quip. Delighted with her, he bent down to kiss her. Oh, they'd done this before. They'd done it a hundred times before. More. But this was different. This... they had slim gold bands around the third finger of their respective left hands. They were _married_ now – and somehow that made it new and exciting. Not that it was ever dull.

But still. New, somehow.

"You're stuck with me for the rest of your life," Loki promised her solemnly, his voice a low whisper when he released her lips.

Darcy hummed contently. "Sounds good to me," she agreed. "Now get that sexy loincloth off, and see if you can unwrap the lingerie."

"A challenge?" Loki teased with a wicked smile, and lowered his teeth to a ribbon that was holding part of the sheer silk in place.

"An invitation for mischief," Darcy countered with a knowing, happy smirk.

~oOo~

The 'official' wedding came a year later, as promised. It was largely organised by Bee Lewis. Of course, Darcy and Loki made sure their feelings and opinions on the whole thing were known and considered. Frigga was the only attendee on Loki's side – she found sneaking out of Asgard by one of the secret passages a little thrilling. Apparently it was something she hadn't done since the days before Asgard was at war with Jotunheim, long before Loki was born.

The couple had their honeymoon (and it was really their first, since just one night in a Vegas 'honeymoon suite' didn't quite count) in New York, where Loki got them into a different Broadway production every night for a week, while they shopped and/or walked around Central Park during the day.

Then the new semester was rapidly approaching, and Loki (somehow) bought a loft apartment for the two of them to live in. At least while Darcy was still studying. Darcy wasn't going to question where he got the funds from. Melting down the shoulder pieces alone of his ceremonial armour would put her through college five times over. But the loft was theirs. They could do whatever they pleased to it. No landlords to complain.

Loki wasn't there every day. He did still have to show his face around Asgard with some regularity – make sure Thor wasn't making an idiot of himself (that was practically Loki's job as his brother, even if he was only adopted), check in with Odin (and summarily ignore his overwhelming apathy towards his adopted/second son), and of course catch up with his beloved mother.

She wanted news of grandchildren particularly, but was happy enough to simply hear how Darcy's health and studies were, as well as Loki's, of course.

"Babe?" Darcy called as she wandered into their kitchenette, their daily paper delivery already open in her hands.

"What news of the world is troubling you my dear?" Loki asked as he set down their breakfast (it was French Toast Day).

"You remember when Stark went missing in Afghanistan?" Darcy countered.

Loki blinked. "They've found him then?" he asked.

"Yeah. And apparently being held hostage by a terrorist organisation in the middle of a war-torn country has really done something for his world-view," Darcy answered. "He's announced a cessation of weapons production."

Loki smirked. "Stocks will go through the floor, but the man's still a genius. He'll get it back on its feet fairly quickly. I'll buy up," he said.

Darcy laughed, pressed a kiss to his cheek, handed over the paper, and sat down to her breakfast. It was an hour until her first class, and a ten minute walk to the campus. Loki woke her up pleasurably every morning so the day always started well, and they had plenty of time to take the morning at a leisurely pace. Darcy was all for sleeping in, but Loki just made waking up so much fun that she was beginning to be converted into a morning person.

"And what else will you do while I'm in my classes?" Darcy teased fondly as she speared a slice of french toast on the end of her fork. "Apart from buy out Stark stocks while all the more nervous investors jump ship?"

"The same thing I do every day, Pinky," Loki answered. When she laughed, he grimaced. "Really though, I'm afraid I have to go and make my appearance in Odin's court," he admitted unhappily.

Darcy gave a sympathetic (slightly mocking, but that was them) pout, leant across the table, and kissed him. As though that would make the pain of having to suffer fools all day any better.

"Taking over the world is a slow-burn sort of thing anyway," she reassured him. "Not something that can be done in just a single day or night."

Loki chuckled at that, kissed his lovely wife again, and settled in to enjoy his breakfast.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki had just started kissing his way across Darcy's shoulder – and she'd given a content hum of slow awakening – when suddenly she bolted from the bed and ran for the restroom. Loki was quick to chase after her, and while he stared briefly in bafflement as she bent her lovely form over the sink, he was quick to pull her hair out of the way when he heard (and smelled) her start to gag and wretch.

He was also quick to send his magic through her body to find whatever was making her ill.

Darcy coughed, spat, turned on the tap to wash the vomit away, rinsed her mouth out and spat again, then turned to her husband. She had felt his magic tingling through her, after all. It had soothed the nausea, actually.

"Loki?" she called softly when she was confronted with his utterly stunned face.

"Darcy," he answered, just as softly, though he was still staring into the middle-distance. "How do you feel about being a mother in roughly nine months time?"

Darcy blinked. "Really?" she squeaked.

Loki nodded.

"We're gonna be parents," she breathed, wide-eyed.

Loki nodded again.

"As soon as I've brushed my teeth, we need to celebrate," she decided. Then a wicked little smirk lit her face. "Or maybe I should punish you for getting me pregnant while I'm still studying?" she suggested.

Loki shivered, and his eyes – still staring into the middle-distance – turned dark with lust as an unconscious, lecherous smile took over his features.

"I've clearly been very naughty with my wife," he agreed, and a wave of his hand saw them both suddenly clad in a few choice pieces from the back of their shared wardrobe. It was with ceremony and solemnity, however, that he presented the riding crop to his beautiful wife.

It wasn't until a couple of weeks later, after they'd had it confirmed by a doctor (more for the sake of having legal records than because either of them doubted Loki's magic), Loki and Darcy let their parents know.

Frigga was delighted to get the news. Bee Lewis proceeded to organise a baby shower. Moe got the Lewis cradle out of storage for the next generation to use.

~oOo~

"We are not calling the child Horace," Loki said the first time he heard Darcy address her stomach so.

"Duh," she agreed. "We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl yet. But I'm not calling our kid 'bump'."

"Ah, an interim name," Loki murmured, understanding. "We should probably think of real names though," he suggested.

"We're not naming our baby after any of your mythological offspring," Darcy said firmly.

"Agreed," was Loki's equally firm response. "I am still regularly shocked by the way Norse Myth has twisted the truth of things. I mean, really, calling me _Odin's_ brother?"

Darcy shrugged, a what-can-you-do? expression on her face.

"Still, less 'normal' names are kinda in, to an extent, so we could get away with something that would sound normal in Asgard if you wanted. Kid wouldn't have to be called Jane, or John, or anything like that," she offered.

"In the event that our child is ever presented to anybody of Odin's court beyond my mother, I. Do. Not. Care," Loki said plainly. "If it becomes truly necessary, then we can translate the name."

Darcy nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "So, any thoughts? Beyond objections to calling him-slash-her Horace, I mean."

When their little bundle of joy eventually escaped Darcy's middle and joined the rest of her family in the world, they ended up calling her Louise Lokisdottir Lewis. Yeah, they went for the alliteration, and stuck in Lokisdottir as a middle name. Besides, the name was good, and she _looked_ like a Louise.

She was beautiful, and had all the best features of both parents (so far as they could tell with her smushed-up baby-face – and all baby's faces were smushed-up, some just happened to be beautiful even when smushed), They knew pretty soon that her father was going to be turning all of her boyfriends into newts when she got older. That is, if he was feeling generous.

~oOo~

"Mama!"

"Hey baby girl," Darcy answered her two-year-old as she scooped the black-haired, green-eyed cherub up into her arms. Simultaneously slipping her bag from her shoulder and setting it on the hall-stand.

"Were you able to find an internship?" Loki asked.

Darcy had just shuffled into their loft home from a day at her college, using their internet – and their information boards – to find some way to get the few more credits she needed. No, she wasn't still in college. Well, if she could get an internship that would net her six science credits then she wouldn't be in college any more. She'd been forced to take a little time out from her studies because of Louise, but that wasn't something she'd ever, _ever_ regret.

Especially since, when she'd gone to meet with the Dean about the matter – wedding ring on her finger, husband at her side, and parents backing her up – he'd been very supportive and had agreed that she could defer a couple of semesters. And wouldn't have to worry about the fees for the semesters that she'd miss. Just the appropriate credits for them.

"I found several," Darcy answered her husband dryly.

Loki smiled, kissed her, and reclaimed their daughter from her arms.

"Which ones do you like the look of best?" Loki persisted with a smirk.

"Well..." Darcy hummed, and it was the hum that Loki recognised as the one that meant Darcy was up to mischief. "There's an astrophysicist out in the desert not too far from here."

Loki recognised a bait when he heard one, but this was his wife, and while they pranked one another freely, they never did so maliciously.

"And what exactly is she studying?" he asked, rising to the bait with a smile.

"I had to google it, but I'm sure you won't need to look it up," Darcy teased, building suspense like a pro. "Ms Jane Foster is studying Einstein Rosen Bridges."

Loki's brows furrowed. He knew that phrase, but its relevance eluded him at that moment.

"Known to the sci-fi geek as a wormhole," Darcy continued. "And to us as -"

"The Bifrost!" Louise chimed in happily. "Like my story book!"

"That's right, my clever little princess!" Darcy praised, and snatched her daughter back from Loki's hold to twirl around happily. "Just like in your story book."

Loki raised an eyebrow at that.

"What _are_ you reading to her when I have to overnight in Asgard?"

"Oh no, this one's all your fault," Darcy denied happily, an unrepentant grin on her face. "I wasn't reading the books Louise here is getting into until I was twice her age. She's just taking after her Daddy, being all clever and tricky."

~oOo~

Darcy got one of her cousins to house-sit for them, rather than outright selling up their loft. The internship only lasted a couple of months. The purchase of a Winnebago was a must (after watching _Space Balls_ , none of their little family would settle for anything less), the sale of their fixed home residence was not. Well, not yet. When Darcy eventually secured an actual paying job, then the sale of their loft would come up for consideration – provided said work was not within a reasonable commute.

"Thanks so much for this," Darcy's cousin Tabby Collins (mother's side of the family) said, a truly grateful expression on her face. Tabby was nineteen, and wanted _out_ of her parent's house. In a permanent sort of way. This was the first step (apart from dorm rooms at the campus) to learning how to deal with having an apartment of her own. She'd have to learn to deal with every expense she'd be facing with renting. Except for actually paying rent. It was a good way to ease Tabby into that sort of independence.

Darcy shrugged easily. "Hey, you're doing us a favour as well," she pointed out. "It works out every way around. Just... no wild parties that you can't clean up after," Darcy cautioned.

Tabby gave a mock-salute. "Scouts' honour," she promised.

"You were never a scout," Darcy quipped right back. "Well, keys, and phone numbers if you have a panic attack of any kind," she said, and handed over the little bits of metal and a slip of paper with two cell-phone numbers (Darcy's and Loki's) and the number for the phone that was in the Winnebago.

Everything sorted out, Darcy climbed into the driver's seat (Loki could drive a car, but Darcy was the one licensed to drive trucks and other, larger vehicles – like their new Winnebago), kissed Loki and Louise, turned the key, and they were off to a little nowhere town in the middle of the desert called Puente Antiguo.

Louise reached out to press the button on the ipod that had been connected to the radio, and the music started.

Darcy and Loki both laughed at the first song that happened to come up, and quickly joined their daughter in singing along.

"Fast, on a rough road riding high, through the mountains climbing, twisting, turning, further from my home -"

For some people, the music they listened to changed when they had kids. Loki and Darcy both firmly believed that to 'dumb down' their music choices would be a disservice to their daughter – there were, however, a couple of censored playlists that were not played around Louise.

~oOo~

"Can I help you?" a (slightly frazzled and somewhat bewildered) woman asked when she opened the door that Darcy had just knocked upon.

"Jane Foster?" Darcy checked.

The woman nodded.

Darcy smiled. "I'm your new intern," she said, and extended a hand to shake.

Automatically, Jane put her hand in Darcy's, but her big brown eyes were taking in the dark-haired man with the little girl on his hip that was standing just behind Darcy.

"Unless you've changed your mind because I'm married with a kid?" Darcy checked.

"No!" Jane was quick to answer, a slightly frightened look in her eyes at that moment. "No, I just... wasn't expecting..."

"You were expecting someone younger, who _didn't_ have to defer a year and a half of their studies because they got pregnant?" Darcy suggested with a knowing smirk. "Don't worry about it. Louise knows not to flip switches or press buttons unless she's got permission from one of us. She won't be a problem."

"I'm kind of surprised you picked up and moved out here for an unpaid internship, with a family and all," Jane admitted uneasily. Clearly worried that lack of pay might send her new intern running for the hills.

"Not really a hardship, Ms Foster," Loki spoke up. "Your research is fascinating, and funds are not an issue for us."

Jane nodded hesitantly, but stepped back from the door to invite her new intern (and her family) into the gutted gas station that she'd taken over for lab/office space.

~oOo~

Darcy knew that look on her husband's face. He didn't wear it often when he was around her or their daughter, or even around Jane. The way she was slowly stumbling her way towards the truth amused him too much, as did the way her eyes lit up like Louise's at Christmas and her birthday any time Loki played Devil's Advocate for her theories until she hit on a new angle to approach her research from. An angle that Loki knew would help her progress. Really, he was very much a guiding hand in this research, since he knew all the answers already.

Like the best of teachers though, he forced the student to think for themselves, and to reach the answer on their own, rather than just giving it to them. He did much the same for Darcy and Louise when he taught them (Darcy was learning magic and how to fight with a weapon, though she kept Mr Shocky on her at all times, since swords were a bit conspicuous. Louise, being three, was still in the 'learning everything' stage).

The point was, rare though Loki wore some of them, Darcy knew all of her husband's expressions and cues. So when he appeared in their Winnebago, fresh from Asgard without having even changed his clothes, and with _that look_ on his face, Darcy was quick to start stripping off armour as she steered him to a chair.

When all the armour was off – and Loki had had to help with some of it – and her husband was looking a bit more comfortable, Darcy kept going. She pulled his jerkin off, and then his shirt, and set her hands on his exposed skin and started kneading at the tension that had built up while he was away from them.

Slowly, he started to relax, until Darcy's thumb hit one spot just right, and he released an appreciative moan. The class on massage that they'd taken together one Spring Break had been a truly fantastic idea.

"You ready to tell me what's wrong, Love?" Darcy asked gently, not letting up with the massage.

"Thor's coronation is to be held in a month's time," Loki answered. "Odin decided it, and informed Mother, Thor and me this morning over breakfast. The preparations have begun already."

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought he still needed to learn the definition of diplomacy," Darcy commented uneasily. "And wasn't anywhere near understanding how to actually be diplomatic, which I'm pretty sure is very key to being a ruler of any kind. You were complaining about his complete lack of tact just last week."

"All true," Loki confirmed unhappily. "Thor is nowhere near ready to rule, and his lack of making nice in delicate situations is only one of many failings, and Odin's blindness to Thor's unready state and myriad faults is one of _his_. One that nearly all of the rest of Asgard shares."

"Except for you and your mother," Darcy said.

Loki nodded, then let his head fall backwards to rest on Darcy's shoulder.

"I cannot fix this," he said. "Thor will be named king, and Asgard will fall to war again, and I will be forced to stand there and watch it happen. No. I will be forced to _participate_. I will not be permitted to stand aside, to escape it all and simply stay here, away from it all."

Darcy pressed a tender kiss to his temple and kept up the massage. This talk was causing tension to form as fast as she worked it out of him, and by the time they were done, she'd need him to do her shoulders as well.

"Well, what's something they would have polarising reactions to?" Darcy suggested. "Odin calm, rational king. Thor angry, foolish warmonger. In close proximity to one another and painfully obvious. Maybe even interrupt the coronation itself, to really piss off Thor and make Odin see how much of a bad idea it is to crown his son right now."

"Jotuns in the vault would do it," Loki said with a scoff. "There's a secret pathway, a natural Bifrost, that connects the Jotun temple to the treasure vault in Asgard."

"But what would get them there? And what other consequences would there be? Could there be?" Darcy asked softly. Devil's advocate to her husband's planning, because this was treason and she knew it, so it was a very delicate conversation.

"The vault has many stolen treasures, including one taken from Jotunheim, and deaths of Asgardian soldiers and the Jotuns would be the consequences. The Jotuns would not leave the guards alive, the other defences in the vault would not leave the Jotuns alive," Loki answered.

"Too much death, just to keep Thor from the throne, hmm?" Darcy suggested.

"Much too much," Loki agreed sadly. "But if I cannot find another way, then it will be only a few lives, instead of thousands."

Darcy sighed. "Heavy the crown," she murmured, and kissed the top of Loki's head. The part called the crown.

Loki chuckled, grateful that Darcy could forgive him the impossible decisions when they came, and even more that she could make small jokes to keep his spirits up.

"I haven't heard Louise," Loki realised suddenly. "Is she taking a nap?"

"She's with Jane," Darcy answered with a smile. "Jane forgets to eat, but she's a sucker for Louise's puppy-eyes, so I've got our little silvertongue-in-training bullying the workaholic into taking a break from the astrophysics and getting something to eat."

"Ah," Loki said softly. "How long do you think they'll be gone?" he asked, and one of his long-fingered hands reached back to wrap around Darcy's thigh, tickling and stroking at the seam of her jeans.

"Oh, Louise has instructions to keep Jane away from the research for an hour at least, and only danced off to snatch the woman away from her star charts ten minutes before you got here," Darcy replied, a salacious smile on her lips as she shifted her hands from Loki's shoulders and moved them down to dance her fingers lightly over his chest.

"Perfect," Loki purred.

~oOo~

"Daddy!" Louise cheered when Loki followed Darcy into Jane's lab some time later. The three-year-old promptly hopped down off her chair and ran over to her father.

"Hello my princess," Loki answered as he scooped her up happily. "Have you been good for your mother while I was away?"

"Yup!" Louise insisted. "Did Gramma Frigga send back any presents this time? Did you take over the world while you were gone? Did Uncle or Gampa do anything stupid?" she rapid-fire asked, bright green eyes sparkling.

"Grandmother Frigga sent some ribbons for your hair. They're waiting for you on your bed. I'm making progress, but taking over the whole world is a slow and difficult task. And yes. Your uncle and Gampa have did something very stupid while I was away," Loki answered. "They decided that they wanted to do something that is very, _very_ stupid. Something which means I'm going to have to go away more often and for longer for a while, to either stop them or fix the things they break when they do it."

Louise pouted.

"Don't want you to be gone more," she declared unhappily.

"Louise," Darcy said warningly. "You know how important your Daddy is back with your Grandmother."

Louise nodded sadly. "I know," she agreed. "Still don't want Daddy gone more." So saying, Louise burrowed into Loki's chest and held tight to his shirt.

Over her head, Loki and Darcy shared looks, a silent conversation of facial contortions, head-tilts... and really truly genuine telepathy. Loki had been teaching his wife magic, after all.

"After I've cleaned up Uncle and Gampa's stupidness, I'll stay without leaving for a whole two weeks," Loki promised Louise softly as he stroked her hair and back. "And I'll teach you to ride a pony."

Louise gasped and looked up at her father with wide, shocked, delighted eyes. "Really?!" she squeaked.

"Really," Darcy confirmed.

"Yay!" Louise cheered.

"But only after your Uncle and Gampa's mess is cleaned up," Loki reminded her firmly. "Right now, they're just getting ready for the stupid thing. I can be here every day, until then, but I also have to go back every day and try and talk them out of it."

"You can do it Daddy," Louise said with the firm belief of a child. Her Daddy could do anything.

"Your Gampa is very stubborn," Loki told her gently. "He doesn't listen to me very much, and your uncle is very stupid."

"If anyone can do it, whatever it is you've got to do, then I'm sure you can do it," Jane offered, finally joining the conversation that she had, until then, only watched.

"Thank you Jane," Loki said, a genuine smile on his face. "Sometimes I worry that I'm not that good, and those who say I am are horribly biased in favour of my skills, because of their love for me. Having an independent third party is helpful."

"No prob," Jane waved off. "Now get over here, all three of you, and help me organise this data. Louise, sweetie, will you take the pile of photos and put them in order according to the dates in their corners? I want the oldest ones at the front, and the newest at the back."

"Okie dokie!"

"Loki, would you mind reading out the times and dates of each recorded phenomenon?" Jane requested. When he nodded in confirmation and accepted the folder, Jane continued. "Darcy, you're taking notes. You're the fastest on the keyboard. I'll be comparing, correlating, and theorising all at once. Think you can handle it?"

Darcy threw a dramatic salute and settled down behind a computer. Once it was booted up and she had the appropriate programs running, she gave her temporary boss the thumbs up. She was good to go.

~oOo~

"Forgive me?" Loki begged Darcy softly as he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair.

"Silvertonge," Darcy answered, just as softly. It was late, Louise was asleep, and Darcy had just taken a little time to stare at the stars before she turned in. She's actually been wondering when she'd see him next when Loki had appeared at her back out of the nothing while she stood there, wishing for him. "Not quite gold yet. The Allfather is half-blind and stubborn. Your mother is wise, but while he hears her words, he does not always listen to her either."

"Will you forgive me?" Loki asked again.

Darcy turned in his arms and slipped her own around his waist.

"Will you forgive yourself?" she countered.

"Likely not," Loki admitted. "Any loss of life is... I am god of mischief and lies, not covert operations and death. There is a fine line I must dance, and these days it seems to be razor sharp."

Darcy nodded. "Then I will forgive you. You have prepared reparations for those who lose their loved ones?"

"They will be given anonymously, as they must, but yes," Loki agreed. "It cannot be enough. The cost of life, of loved ones... Nothing can suffice, but I have prepared what I can."

"Lie as little as you can," Darcy ordered softly. "Say nothing, rather than speak lies."

Loki nodded silently.

"Call me if anything goes wrong, just so that I can know," Darcy begged.

"Of course," Loki promised.

"How long can you stay?" she asked, her voice only a whisper.

"I need to leave by ten in the morning, to prepare for the ceremony. I'll be able to have breakfast with you and Louise, say hello to Jane."

"You'll be able make love to me under the stars tonight first," Darcy countered, a hopeful smile on her face. "Tomorrow will be terrible for you. Take some comfort from your wife before you go and endure it."

Loki smiled down at her and, with a wave of his hand, conjured a bed. Curtained so that no passer-by would see them, though there was no canopy to hide them from the stars. There was spell work though, so that the stars could be seen without any among them able to look down and see the couple below whispering "I love you" to one another over and over again.

When morning came, Loki was able to meet Erik Selvig as well. He was a mentor of Jane's. The man had grown up in Norway, but had been living in the States for the past thirty years. He only arrived in Puente Antiguo at seven that morning though.

~oOo~

"The Jotuns must pay for what they have done!" Thor growled, Mjolnir gripped tight and ready in his hand.

"They have paid," Odin answered calmly as he looked over the most dangerous of the stolen relics in the vault. He seemed almost melancholy in his contemplation. "With their lives. The Destroyer did its work, the Casket is safe, and all is well."

"All is well?" Thor repeated, incredulous. "They broke into the weapons vault! If the Frost Giants had stolen even _one_ of these relics -"

"But they didn't," Odin countered, cutting off his favoured son, but still calm. Still with his single eye on the treasure that was almost stolen.

"Well I want to know why!" Thor demanded.

"I have a truce with Laufey, king of the Jotuns," Odin offered.

"He just broke your truce!" Thor declared, his voice echoing through the still vault. "They know you are vulnerable."

At that, Odin turned, a glimmer of surprise in his single eye. That his son would say such a thing, think such a thing, of him.

"What action would you take?" Odin asked mildly.

"March into Jotunheim as you once did," Thor answered. "Teach them a lesson. Break their spirits so they will never dare try to cross our borders again."

"You're thinking only as a warrior."

"This was an act of war!"

"It was but an act of few, doomed to fail."

"Look how far they got!" Thor demanded with a sweep of his arm.

"We will find the breach in our defences, and it will be sealed."

"As king of Asgard -"

"But you're not king!" Odin snapped sharply at Thor, a moment witnessed only by the stolen relics, the corpses of two fallen guards, the remains of three dead Jotuns, and Loki. Odin had finally raised his voice against his favoured son.

Loki felt like he'd been watching a tennis match, the way words had gone back and forth between them. Thor putting his full force behind every word, Odin calmly and gently returning, letting Thor think so well of his power and his ideas. Until the moment Odin cut it all out from underneath him, and Thor had no answer.

"Not yet."

Odin went to inspect the defences. Thor went to give vent to his rage. Loki quickly pulled out his phone. Getting it to work across the realms had been a tricky bit of magic, but worth it.

" _How bad?"_

"Two of Odin's guards are dead, and I can see pieces of three Jotuns," Loki said. "I'll see about returning their remains to Jotunheim before I go looking for Thor."

" _I take it the coronation didn't go through?"_

"It won't be safe to be around him until he has upended a some large piece of furniture," Loki replied. "Odin won't be making Thor king for at least a little while longer, that much is assured. Disaster averted, for now."

" _I love you. Give Frigga a hug from me. Then give her one for you."_

"I will. I love you too, my Darcy. Kiss Louise for me. I may be a while."

~oOo~

When Loki found Thor, the blonde behemoth was, indeed, over-turning a table. One which was laid out in readiness for feasting – including having food set upon it in waiting. The only reason there wasn't more of a mess was because the table was stopped from crashing on top of the food by the benches it caught on first.

Carefully, Loki approached.

"It is unwise to be in my company right now, Brother," Thor warned.

Loki nodded, but bit his lip. Saying such a thing as "I can tell" would not help. Instead, he simply sat down beside the man who also called Frigga 'mother'.

"This was to be my day of triumph," Thor growled, his rage restrained only because he'd already over-turned the table.

"It'll come," Loki promised softly. "In time." It was all the comfort he could offer. After all, he had been the one, ultimately, who had disrupted Thor's triumph. Odin's son was not ready for the throne. Loki could see that. Frigga could see that.

Frigga had approved his plan to disrupt the coronation, actually. Loki could keep no secrets from his mother. She had been kind enough to him with her love and honesty, he could give her no less, especially when it involved letting Jotuns into Asgard.

"What's this?" Volstagg asked as he, Fandral, Hogun and Sif joined them.

"What does it look like?" Loki countered as neutrally as he could. He was sitting beside his still-volatile sibling, after all. "Thor, whether you are right or Father is -" Loki was always careful to refer to Odin as 'Father' when speaking to Thor, or Odin himself. "- I will take no sides in this matter. But there is nothing you can do without defying Father."

Thor turned to him then, and Loki felt a moment of cold realisation rushing down his spine.

"No," he said. "No no no no no. I know that look," he insisted as he leaned away from Thor, who now stood, resolution in every line of his body.

"It is the only way to ensure the safety of our borders," Thor insisted.

"Thor, it's madness!" Loki protested.

"Madness?" Volstagg asked. "What sort of madness?"

"We're going to Jotunheim," Thor answered gravely.

Loki hung his head. He had calculated the likelihood of Thor making such a decision. He just wished Thor would defy expectations for once in his damn fool life, mostly because Loki knew he'd get roped into this.

When the others left to fetch warmer clothing for themselves, Loki called Darcy.

~oOo~

"Allfather," Laufey greeted when he rose on a spire of ice to meet with Odin, who had descended from the Bifrost atop Sleipnir. "You look weary," the Jotun king observed.

"Laufey, end this now," Odin requested.

"Your boy sought this out," Laufey countered.

"You're right," Odin agreed. "These are the actions of a boy. Treat them as such. You and I can end this, here now, before there is further bloodshed."

"We are beyond diplomacy now, Allfather," Laufey said, his red eyes glowing in the icy darkness of Jotunheim. "He'll get what he came for. War. And death."

"So be it," Odin answered, and with a slam of Gungnir, the Bifrost took them away again from Jotunheim.

For the second time that day, Loki was witness to something he had previously believed he would never see. Odin angered by his son, yelling and scolding him, only this time... this time it was much more severe. But then, so was the transgression. Angry words were exchanged, and Loki recognised the expression on Odin's face as one of a father who was hurt by the fact he must be harsh with his beloved progeny.

~oOo~

Darcy mentally started to tally points when the 'event' began. Point one: this was an event that was actually making contact with the ground. Point two: it wasn't just one colour, it was a veritable _rainbow_. Point three: Jane ran over a blonde guy. Point four: said blonde, once vaguely upright, started on about a hammer. Point five: after finding no hammer around him, he yelled up at the stars for 'father' and 'Heimdall' (though it was uncertain if they were the same or not, but Darcy was inclined to believe not, based on Loki's descriptions). Point six: the guy demanded the opening of the Bifrost. Point seven: he wanted to know what realm he was on. Point eight: he suggested Alfenheim and Nornheim as places he might be.

On a side-note, Darcy was flattered he might think he was on Alfenheim. Loki said that the light elves of Alfenheim were some of the most beautiful beings in all the realms. A bit tra-la-lally, and very Tolkein in all the most annoying ways, but beautiful all the same.

Not so much flattered on the suggestion he'd found himself in Nornheim though, but she'd credit that to Erik's looks, rather than her own.

The points adding up, Darcy pulled out Mr Shocky and aimed it at the guy's chest. Then came point nine:

"You think to threaten me, the mighty Thor -"

That was all she needed to hear. He kept going a few seconds while she fired the taser and then activated it, but he went down all the same. Nice, solid thump. Loki would get a kick out of that when she told him about it.

Jane and Erik turned to her with shocked expressions though.

"Jane, Erik, meet my brother-in-law," Darcy presented. "Not that he knows that," she added thoughtfully. "He and Loki don't really talk much, and he sure as heck wasn't at the wedding. He'll wake up eventually and be totally fine, I promise you. Disoriented and probably violent, but otherwise fine. I'll get him out of your way so you can record the markings, and I'll call Loki, let him know where the blonde idiot is."

"O-okay," Jane agreed a little weakly.

Darcy smiled at her boss, grabbed Thor's arms, bent, and pulled him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Training in fighting and magic with Loki had done wonders for her, as had the clandestinely given fruit baskets from Frigga. The first basket full of Idunn's apples that Frigga had given Darcy had been a wedding present. She'd kept them secret and then pigged out on them all by herself the first time Loki had gone back to Asgard after their 'official' wedding. Frigga had sent the second basket when Darcy was pregnant with Louise. It was the only secret she kept from him, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't be mad when he eventually found out.

Still, she was glad to dump her unconscious brother-in-law in the back of the truck.

Then she called her husband.

~oOo~

" _Darcy,"_ Loki breathed when he answered the phone.

She was instantly alert. "Loki? Baby are you okay? You weren't hurt on Jotunheim, were you?" she asked frantically. He didn't sound like he was alright.

" _I... physically, I am unhurt. Fandral received a chest wound, but he is healed, and Volstagg was burned by the cold of a Jotun's touch but..."_ Loki broke off. Hesitated.

"Loki," Darcy said, and cradled the phone against her face like it was his hand instead. "Loki talk to me. I can't deal with the fact that Thor landed _here_ of all places if I'm worried about you, and you know I will if you don't tell me whatever it is that is bothering you."

" _Thor is there?"_ Loki repeated. _"With you? In New Mexico? Near Louise? Norns, how is he? Odin cast him out. I've never seen him so angry. Not even at me. His sight finally clear to what Thor really is... and it hurt him. I did not think I would feel such pain, to rip the blinders away from him as I have done. Odin is the only father I have known, and Thor, vain, prideful fool that he is, he's still my brother."_

Darcy sighed. He wasn't so far gone that he forgot to be concerned for family at least.

"Yeah, he's here," she confirmed. "Not near Louise yet. She's in bed, and currently I'm out in the middle of the desert with Jane and Erik. They're taking recordings from when the Bifrost dumped big, blonde, and bull-headed two inches from the side of the van. He's currently unconscious and lying down in the back."

" _Some would say that 'bull-headed' is better used in reference to me than to Thor,"_ Loki joked.

"Maybe," Darcy allowed with a barely restrained saucy smile at the reference to Loki's golden helmet. "You should have seen him stumbling about like a drunk though. I'm afraid it was too dark for me to record with my phone," she added apologetically.

" _With your permission, I'll slip into your memories of it when I return,"_ Loki suggested hopefully.

Darcy smiled outright at that. "Sure," she agreed. That way, Loki would get to see for himself the moment when Thor fell to Mr Shocky. She would keep quiet about it for now, give him a pleasant surprise when he got back to her.

"Don't think you've gotten away with changing the subject though," Darcy said. "What's wrong? Apart from you realising that you do actually care about Odin. I know you Loki. I've known all along that you care about Odin and Thor, even if you didn't realise. Come on love, what's eating away at you?"

" _I... You recall I told you that I was adopted? That my mother had only suspicions of where Odin had brought me back from? Suspicions she could not prove and did not wish to weigh me with when they were only guesses?"_

"You found out," Darcy realised softly.

" _Well, I turned Jotun blue when one of them grabbed my arm, rather than being burned by the coldness of them as Volstagg was,"_ Loki replied with painfully dry words. _"It seems I am a monster."_

"You turn blue?" Darcy repeated, surprised.

" _Most definitely,"_ Loki confirmed. _"I'm actually in the vault right now, and..."_ there was a gentle rustle-click sort of sound that Darcy associated with a cell phone being wedged between a person's ear and their shoulder. _"And I am turning blue before my own eyes as I hold the Casket of Winters,"_ he whispered with melancholic fear.

As if he was resigned and terrified all at once.

A voice called out from Loki's end of the line.

" _It's the Allfather,"_ Loki said softly.

"Don't hang up!" Darcy insisted quickly. "Hide the phone somewhere on your person, but I want to hear what he has to say for himself as well." After all, she knew that Loki had been raised on the stories of the war against Jotunheim, had been taught that Frost Giants were monsters. She wanted to know what Odin had to say for himself, for telling such stories to a child taken from Jotunheim.

Frigga had certainly never told Loki such stories.

" _Alright,"_ Loki agreed softly.

~oOo~

"Darcy?" Loki checked once the guards had come and taken Odin to his chambers after his collapse into a somewhat unscheduled Odinsleep. "Love, are you still there?"

" _I'm here,"_ she confirmed. _"Loki, I want you to go and give your Ma – and she is still your mother, don't argue – I want you to go and give her a great big hug, tell her everything that Odin just told you, give her another hug. And then I want you to come home and give Louise a hug and a kiss. And then we are going to make use of some privacy spells and look into the possibility of making Louise a big sister."_

Loki gave a weak, relieved, gasping laugh.

"Anything for you Darcy," he promised softly.

" _I love you,"_ she answered him. _"Which means the same thing."_

"I'll see you soon."

" _You better."_

He was on Midgard ten minutes later, but rather than tracking down which specific part of the desert Darcy, Jane, and Erik were in, he headed straight for the Winnebago, where he knew his daughter would be. He needed some time holding his baby girl. He needed some time holding her mother too, but Louise soothed his soul in a completely different way. Besides, he needed to check if any of his Jotun heritage had somehow been passed on to her without either of her parents noticing.

She was, but it was buried deeply. Somehow Louise was more Aesir than Jotun or mortal of Midgard. The margin was smaller between the Aesir and Mortal heritage, but it remained there all the same.

Loki looked deeper within himself, as well as Louise, until he found the most satisfying answer available to him. Frigga. The memory was old and faint, but now that he was trying to remember, Loki did recall that one of the magicks Frigga had taught him was that of blood adoption. Rarely done in any of the realms, Frigga had taught Loki how it was done because she insisted that his magical education would be as complete as she could make it. In the process, the Queen of Asgard re-solidified her claim as his mother by making him of her blood.

He would not be a full Aesir, it was impossible to erase his Jotun parentage, but Frigga was truly his mother. From what he could find of his own self, it seemed that Laufey had not begat him on another Jotun anyway, so he was not bred true. It would explain why he so easily fit in among the Aesir, even before Frigga had claimed him by blood.

Some inherent magic in either his person or Louise when she was forming had orchestrated for the safer of his bloodlines to be carried within Darcy's womb. It made little sense, but it was the best he could make out.

"My little princess," Loki cooed at her as she slept in his arms, unaware of the magical working her father had been performing over her.


	3. Chapter 3

When the van returned, Loki conjured a tent behind the Winnebago where Jane and Erik couldn't see the magic at work, then went out to greet them.

"Fruitful night?" he enquired.

"Lots of data," Jane confirmed. "Fascinating events... and apparently your brother showed up?" she added in query.

"Darcy did call me about that," Loki confirmed with a nod, and moved around to the back of the van, where Darcy was waving to him from. Judging from the tugging she was doing, he'd guess that was where she'd stashed the great fool.

"He, uh, he doesn't really... well, _look_ like you at all," Jane said tentatively.

"That's what happens when one of you is adopted," Loki answered with as much neutrality and as little feeling as he could. He had just recently had that wound re-opened rather violently, after all.

Jane clearly caught that it was a sensitive topic, as she winced. "Sorry," she murmured.

Loki waved her off. "No offence taken," he assured her. "Go. Either get some sleep or get started processing your data. Just remember to eat something if you go for the second option."

Jane grinned, grabbed some of her equipment from the back of the van, and ran into her lab.

"I'm not sure if you're a terrible influence or a great one," Erik informed Loki plainly.

"A little of both, I think," Loki admitted freely with a smile and a shrug.

Erik grunted. "Well, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll see you when it's light out," he said, and with a wave, he turned to head to where his own bed had been set up for the length of his visit.

Loki finally reached his wife.

"Hey," she greeted softly, a smile on her face and her arms up and around his torso without a hint of hesitation.

"Hey," he answered just as softly, and he melted into her embrace. Darcy was the shorter, but her hugs were magic. A balm to his soul that he would gladly lose himself in. The way her nose rubbed against his sternum and sometimes was swept up to nuzzle against the dip at the base of his throat. The way her hair smelled when he bent and buried his face in her neck. The way she always hugged him with her whole body, not just her arms. "I love you," he breathed into her ear.

"I love you too," Darcy answered easily. "Now, help me evict Thor from amongst the delicate, home-made equipment. The sooner he's out of the way, the sooner we can get to the good stuff."

Loki chuckled, peeked over Darcy's shoulder to where his brother lay unconscious, and with a wave of his hand he transported Thor into the tent he'd conjured moments before.

"Done," he whispered lowly into Darcy's ear. And just to be sure, he also sent an enchantment after him to make him sleep longer. Loki didn't want to deal with Thor before coffee had been consumed, at the very earliest.

She smiled in answer. "Good. Now, I think a hammock and a large serving of hot chocolate are what we need right now. We can sit under the stars and talk it all out, then when the hot chocolate is gone, I'll make sure you remember how much I really do love you," she suggested.

Loki smiled a helpless smile.

"I am constantly reminded of so many reasons why I love you," he countered, and conjured the requested items. They stayed out until the grey light before dawn, alternating between talking, crying, cooing, cuddling, short naps, and slow, tender love-making. Darcy even got Loki to show her what he looked like blue, and after confirming that he did not automatically burn her black with the cold of his altered form, and that he could actively control his body temperature, made love to him that way as well.

Just to make sure he completely understood that Darcy loved _him_ , whatever he looked like, and she wasn't going to leave him.

"I truly am constantly reminded of the many, many reasons why I love you, and am completely unworthy of you," Loki whispered into her hair as he held her close and they finally fell asleep.

"Unconditional love," Darcy answered in a sleepy murmur. "Married you with the expectation of never leaving your side. Was in the vows. Take my promises seriously."

~oOo~

Morning proper began with Louise jumping onto her parents with a cheer. They'd eventually fallen asleep on the couch, which left them completely open to her attack.

"Daddy's back!" Louise cheered, and from the expression on her face, she had not forgotten the promise made to her. Loki wasn't going anywhere for two weeks, no matter what, and he was going to teach his daughter to ride a pony.

"Good morning Princess," Loki managed to grunt out.

"Uncle and Gampa's mess is all cleaned up? You're staying now?" she checked, insistent and hopeful. She really didn't want to hear 'no'.

"It's cleaned up enough," Loki agreed. "Gampa has fallen into the Odinsleep, Uncle is currently sleeping in a tent outside, and Gramma is in charge of everything back in Asgard. I've done my share of cleaning up after other people's messes, now it's her turn, and I get to spend two weeks with you and your mother."

"Yay! Wait, Uncle is here?" Louise asked, surprised.

"He is," Darcy confirmed. "He showed up last night while you were asleep."

"Gampa kicked him out of Asgard for being monumentally stupid," Loki explained softly. "He wasn't very nice about it either. Not to Thor, and not to himself. He actually went so far as to kick Thor out of the family, not just out of Asgard."

Louise wrapped her arms around her father's neck, gave him a squeeze, and kissed his cheek.

Loki melted under the attentions of his daughter, the last of his shattered pieces coming back together again. Darcy had done an excellent job at putting him back together the night before, but there were some things that needed his daughter's special touch. Gratefully and lovingly, Loki returned his daughter's hug and kiss.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair and he held her tight to him. "You and your mother. So much."

"Love you too Daddy."

~oOo~

"You don't think this was just a magnetic storm, do you?" Erik was saying to Jane as Darcy led her family into the lab once they'd all had their breakfast.

"Look, the lensing around the edges? It's characteristic of an -"

"Einstein-Rosen Bridge!" Darcy, Loki, and Louise all chorused with the two astrophysicists.

Jane grinned to see the family. "Good morning," she greeted. "Welcome back, Loki, if I didn't say that last night."

"Hello Ms Foster," he replied. "I do apologise for my brother dropping in like he has. I'll do my best to keep him out of your way, though I'm afraid he'll be up and raging any minute now."

Jane waved it off. "No worries," she assured him. "Just so long as he doesn't break anything that can't be easily fixed. You know how he got out there? From nowhere?"

"Blame his father," Loki answered easily, not giving anything away with his answer. "For his appearance here, at least. Everything else is his own fault. But you were talking about lensing?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jane recalled, and passed a folder of pictures to Louise. "Would you be a dear and go with your Ma and pin these up on the board for me?" she asked. "I haven't looked at them yet, so you let me know if there's anything really cool, okay?"

Louise nodded, a bright grin on her face as she took the folder and scurried over to the pin-board.

Darcy picked up the little box of thumb-tacks and joined her little girl as Louise climbed up on a stool so that she could reach the higher parts of the pin-board.

Jane, meanwhile, pulled out a different couple of A3-sized photographs.

"What do you see?" she asked Loki and Erik as she presented them with one of the pictures.

"Stars," Erik answered at once.

"Yes, but not _our_ stars," Jane persisted, and held up the other. "This is what the stars should look like in this quadrant at this time of year. Unless Ursa-minor decided to take a night off, then these are someone else's stars," she declared firmly.

"They're Asgard's," Loki supplied softly.

"What was that?" Jane asked almost sharply.

"Daddy, look!" Louise called out then, drawing everybody's attention to the little girl. She was bouncing on the stool as she pointed to one particular picture.

A picture which had a distinctly human shape spiralling downwards among the rest of the stormy swirls.

"No, it can't be," Erik breathed as he approached and narrowed his eyes at the image.

Jane's jaw worked up and down a moment in silent shock before she turned on the two elder Lewises.

"Something to say?" the scientist demanded, arms crossed over her chest.

"Busted?" Darcy suggested with a grimace.

Loki nodded in agreement. "Definitely busted," he confirmed. "Yes, Ms Foster, that blur in the picture most likely _is_ my brother. Yes, I know what he's doing in there. Indeed, I perfectly understand all of the science that you are struggling your way towards. I have not been laughing at your efforts behind your back. I have been enjoying being a witness to your journey."

"You know how to make an Einstein-Rosen Bridge work," Jane said, just to make that particular point perfectly clear.

"Yes," Loki confirmed. "But it means so much to you to figure it out for yourself, simply handing you the answers you're looking for would have been a disservice."

Jane nodded slowly, accepting and understanding, if not _wholly_ satisfied. There was a light in her eyes though. One that Loki knew meant that she had questions, and that she wanted answers.

As he had just spotted Thor groggily stepping out of the tent Loki had set him in, and Loki knew that Jane would need a moment to line up her thoughts so that she could ask the _right_ questions – she did have two months experience with him, after all. So he excused himself and went to confront his brother.

Darcy settled Louise on her hip and followed him out. She wasn't going to let him face the idiot alone right now, and the astrophysicists needed to wrap their heads around Loki's revelations – as well as decide if they actually believed him.

~oOo~

"Loki," Thor greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Right now? I am seeing to you," Loki answered dryly as he set a plate of eggs and sausages down on a conjured table before his brother. "As I always seem to be doing, as though I were your keeper."

"Has something happened? How long have I slept?" Thor asked, confused as he looked up to see how high the sun was in the sky – even while he sat down and began shovelling in the presented food.

The sleeping spell Loki had hit him with the previous evening was quite strong. It was almost lunch time – on of the many benefits of working with astrophysicists was that 'breakfast' happened later in the day, and so Darcy wasn't expected to be in for work until later, which meant that the Lewis family had more time during the day with one another.

"Quite long enough for many things to have happened," Loki answered neutrally when Thor had finished eating. He knew Thor could easily eat more, but it was nearing lunch time, and Jane looked like she'd been dodging efforts to get her to eat since Erik had arrived, now three days previous.

"Is it Jotunheim?" Thor demanded, setting his utensils down.

"Jotunheim is the least of your worries," Loki replied firmly, "and presently all the worries of our mother."

Thor frowned in confusion. "I- I don't understand," he said. "Father -"

"The Odinsleep came suddenly," Loki offered by way of explanation. "Mother rules Asgard until he wakes – and no, Thor, I will not speak to her on your behalf to have you restored to Asgard prematurely."

"Prematurely?" Thor repeated, incredulous. Then rage took him. "Prematurely?!" he roared, and he would have up-ended the table before him, just as he had the one in Asgard the night before, save that Loki bound him with a spell.

"You will not behave so _here_ as you did in Odin's palace," Loki warned with a hiss as he wrapped a fist up in the front of Thor's shirt. "You will not presume the same arrogance and bullying, haughty airs as you did before Odin stripped you of your power and name. You will not behave so shamefully before _my wife and daughter_."

Thor looked as though he had been struck.

"You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy," Loki said calmly, repeating Odin's words to Thor. But he said them quietly, calmly, and directly into Thor's ear. "I am neither blind, nor foolish. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you opened Asgard and all of its people to war. Not just the guards and soldiers and warriors, but the peaceful. The spinners and weavers, the blacksmiths and the carpenters, the _children_ , Thor, you have put at risk. Civilians, women and children. Like my wife and daughter," Loki reiterated firmly, and stepped back from Thor.

"If you do anything while on Midgard to endanger myself, my daughter, my husband, or even the people I work with, I will not hesitate to electrocute you a second time," Darcy said firmly. "And I think I proved last night just how effective that was."

Thor frowned at Darcy, but he could see the warning in Loki's eyes, the possessive hand on her shoulder, the way the child was held between both parents. He could see how Loki had one hand still free to cast spells with, and the weapon he had mocked the night before was hanging loosely, but ready, in the woman's hand.

"You swore to guard the Nine Realms. You swore to preserve the peace. You swore to cast aside all selfish ambition, and pledged yourself only to the good of the Realm. You were not made king, but these oaths you gave. You broke those oaths, Thor," Loki said plainly. "You broke them all too quickly."

Thor looked down to his feet. Shamed a little. Not enough, and there was still too much anger in him, but it was a beginning.

~oOo~

Louise worked her charm on Jane and got her out of the lab and into the diner for lunch – and everybody else attached to the woman's research in any way. Which meant that tables had to be pushed together to accommodate two astrophysicists, two extra-terrestrials, and two Lewis women.

"We'll all have the all-day breakfast please," Loki ordered politely at the counter while Darcy organised the seating arrangements with one of the staff. "As well as a pot of coffee and a jug of orange juice."

"Sure thing Mr Lewis," Izzy, the woman who owned and ran the diner, answered.

"Oh, and... make sure the blonde with the beard gets a plastic cup? He's been known to throw cups yelling 'another'," Loki added quietly.

"You know the stranger, Mr Lewis?" Izzy asked curiously.

"He's my brother," Loki admitted, and then grimaced at Izzy's confused look. He knew that she could see, clear as day, that they looked nothing alike. She was polite enough to not point it out at the top of her lungs, but the question was clearly on her lips. "I'm adopted," he admitted, his voice even lower. "He, self-absorbed fool that he is, doesn't know that. He didn't even know I was married and had a daughter until he showed up last night."

Izzy nodded her understanding. She had a sister up in Michigan she never talked to, though they did do the Christmas Card bit, with full, comprehensive letters detailing what had happened over the past year. It was fifty-fifty if those letters ever got read, on both sides.

"And I see him nearly every day," Loki finished.

Izzy was floored, but it really drove home how much of a painful customer the guy could potentially be. "Plastic for the blonde," she confirmed. "What about Louise? You think she's up for glass yet?"

Loki considered his little princess as she climbed up onto the booster seat that was atop one of the chairs.

"Not yet," he decided, then turned a smile on Izzy. "Your glasses are large and heavy for a child."

"We got straws," Izzy pointed out.

"She likes to pick up the cups," Loki countered. "We'll stick with plastic for now."

Izzy nodded in acceptance, and wrote up the order.

Predictably, Thor _did_ throw his cup to the floor once he'd drained it, yelling for another.

"You can have more when you've picked up the cup and said 'please'," Darcy informed him pertly, a perfect imitation of her own mother. "Like a polite member of modern society."

"Rather than a brutish thug who was raised in a cave," Louise added, her cute little nose in the air as the three-year-old did her level best to mimic Darcy's tone.

Jane nodded her agreement, a distinctly unimpressed look directed at Thor. She knew manners weren't a foreign concept where he was from, since she knew Loki. The complete dichotomy between the two brothers was annoying her scientific mind. They were raised in the same household. How could their manners be so polarised? She added that to the list of questions she intended to ask.

~oOo~

"The usual please Izzy," called local number one as he strolled into the diner.

"You missed all the excitement out at the crater," added local number two.

"Crater?" Izzy asked as she wrote up the order and passed it back to the kitchen.

"Seems some kind of satellite landed out in the desert," the first explained.

"Yeah, we were havin' a good time with it, until the Feds showed up," the second added.

Jane, unable to resit anything that related to space in any way, turned in her seat.

"Excuse me," she called over. "Did you say there was a satellite crash?"

"Yeah," the second of the two locals confirmed easily.

"What did it look like, the satellite?" Erik asked, similarly unable to hold back his curiosity over the matter.

"Well, I dunno anything about satellites," the more vocal local admitted, "but it was heavy. I mean, _nobody_ could lift it."

"Did it look like a hammer?" Loki suggested, keeping a cautious eye on Thor as the blonde set his cutlery down and wiped his mouth. "Leather-wrapped handle with Celtic-looking engravings?"

"Yeah," the locals agreed.

Thor stood.

"They said it was radio-active," the second local continued. "I had my hands all over it."

"Which way?" Thor asked.

"Uh, 'bout fifty miles west of here," was the surprised, slightly hesitant answer.

Without a word of thanks, Thor proceeded out of the diner.

Loki sighed. "I'll go after him," he volunteered. "You all finish eating. I'll see you back at the lab. Gentlemen, Izzy, I do apologise for him. He wasn't spanked enough when it was still possible to put him over a knee. Darcy?"

"I got the cash for the bill," she promised. "I felt you slip it into my wallet as soon as Thor stood up."

Loki smiled, kissed her quickly, and went after him.

Louise pouted. "I thought Daddy was staying," she complained.

"He didn't really factor in Thor showing up here, Baby," Darcy said explained, "and you know your daddy would rather be here with you, but Thor is stupid enough that he'd probably just walk down the middle of the road without a care for traffic. If he actually got himself killed, then your Gramma would be sad."

Louise pouted, but relented. She didn't want Gramma sad. Especially not because of her stupid uncle.

That Loki was actually back at the table in five minutes improved her mood greatly.

"That was fast," Darcy commented.

Loki rolled his eyes. "The idiot is determined. I told him I wouldn't help him any more while he was on Midgard, and conjured a horse for him."

Louise's eyes lit up.

"Yes, speaking of horses," Darcy drawled knowingly.

Loki chuckled. "What colour would you like your pony to be, my little Princess?"

"A pretty white one!"

"Ahem," Darcy coughed pointedly, an expectant eyebrow raised at her daughter.

"Please Daddy?"

~oOo~

They were walking back to the lab, Louise happily swinging from her parent's arms while Jane asked Loki questions, carefully recording her answers in her notebook, when a truck was forced to stop in front of them – it sounded its horn loudly in protest for the car blocking its way, and continued on. But Jane was yelling after it. It had _her stuff_ in the back, and she definitely didn't give anybody permission to take it.

The lab wasn't too far away. Jane immediately booked it, took off at her absolute top speed, forcing the rest of the group to keep pace with her.

Loki swung Louise onto his shoulders and lengthened his stride. Darcy similarly stayed right next to her husband. Frantic as Jane was, they were both able to move faster than her, but knew that reaching the lab before her wouldn't do much good.

"What is going on here?" Jane demanded. She would have demanded to know what _the hell_ was going on, but even out of her mind and depth, she was still aware that Louise was near by and would hear such language.

"Ms Foster, I'm Agent Coulson with SHIELD," a man in a suit answered.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?!" she demanded, irate. "You can't just do this!"

Erik was quick to try and pull his protege aside, a worried look on his face as he tried to make her calm down. His actions set Coulson smiling.

"Agent Coulson," Loki greeted. "It is nice to finally be able to put a face to the name. I've heard good things about you."

That threw... just about everybody in the room. Including the agents who were packing up just about everything Jane's lab. A six-foot-tall man with an English accent in the middle of New Mexico, a civilian, had _heard things_ about Agent Coulson. Like he was higher up the pecking order or something.

"Let it go?!" Jane demanded sharply in answer to Selvig's advice. "This is my life!"

"Jane," Darcy waylaid her temporary boss. "You're a great astrophysicist, but these are suits from a covert agency. Let the intergalactic prince and the poli-sci major with a husband and a daughter handle this," she advised softly.

Jane pressed her lips together unhappily, huffed, but relented and let Erik put an arm around her shoulders.

"Agent Coulson," Darcy said as she stepped up to stand beside her husband, a hand extended for the agent to shake. "I'm Darcy Lewis, pleased to meet you."

"Miss Lewis," Coulson answered.

"Mrs, actually," Darcy corrected. "My husband, Loki, and our daughter up on his shoulders," she presented with a gesture. "Agent Coulson, may I enquire as to why SHIELD is illicitly absconding with Ms Foster's property?"

"We're investigating a security threat," he answered. "We need to appropriate all of Ms Foster's records and atmospheric data."

"Ah," Loki said. "You have just admitted to theft, Agent Coulson," he scolded. "As that is the definition of the word 'appropriate' in the context you have used. You might want to rethink that."

"To take for your own use without permission from the rightful owner," Louise recited from atop her father's shoulders. She really was terribly smart for an almost-four-year-old.

"Any and all agencies are required to have a warrant if they wish to appropriate property belonging to civilians," Darcy said firmly. "They are also require to provide an itemised receipt. Because eventually, Agent Coulson, you will be required to return Ms Foster's property, and you will be required to return it in exactly the same condition as it was when you and your subordinates took it."

"And no, a cheque won't do as a substitute, Agent Coulson," Loki cut off when Coulson reached into the breast pocket of his jacket. "You're very good, but your usual methods will not be..." he smiled, "... _appropriate_ in this instance."

"A lot of the equipment was built by Ms Foster," Darcy added. "Your boys won't have any idea how to use it without breaking it along the way to learning. The method we've been using here for collating the data may be fairly standard within the scientific community, but the short-hand we've been using the last couple of months definitely isn't."

Coulson gave the couple – and their daughter – a carefully bland look.

"What exactly are you aiming for here?" he asked carefully.

"How about, rather than offending a truly brilliant astrophysicist who is a couple of data reviews away from making the greatest discovery in human history to date, you work _with_ her?" Loki suggested.

"What?!" Jane yelped, offended by the idea of working with people who were still actively packing up her equipment into padded suitcases.

"Jane, SHIELD is a security agency that answers to the UN, not just to America," Loki stated calmly, not taking his eyes off Agent Coulson. "I would sooner you never had anything to do with them, that you could keep your research strictly within the scientific community, but that is clearly no longer an option, and SHIELD aren't... all that bad, as far as paranoid security agencies go," he allowed.

"Definitely better than Homeland Security, the FBI, or the CIA," Darcy agreed. "They'd just stuff everything in a box and you'd never see it again."

"And these guys aren't doing that now?" Jane demanded.

"Ms Foster, we're the good guys," Agent Coulson answered her sincerely, then he turned back to Loki and Darcy. "I'll need to talk with my superiors about bringing in a civilian."

"Of course, procedure and all," Darcy agreed. "But in the mean time, still waiting for that itemised receipt."

~oOo~

Thor was taken into custody by SHIELD when he broke into the base they'd set up around Mjolnir, and as he'd failed to raise the hammer, failed to make it shift even the slightest bit, he was passive and subdued when they put the handcuffs on him. Loki made no efforts to retrieve him, and he made sure that neither Jane or Erik would make any motions in that direction either. Darcy, he knew wouldn't, and Louise couldn't.

Besides, she was much more interested in learning how to ride the pony he would conjure for her every day. It was only an illusion, but so well reinforced with his magic as to be solid.

Agent Coulson's superiors had agreed that it was more efficient to take advantage of the brain that had built the equipment and already understood the data, so Jane's equipment was quickly returned to her. While that was being done, Loki had quietly taken Agent Coulson aside and advised a padded cell for the blonde idiot.

"You know him?" Coulson demanded at once. "We're having a surprising amount of trouble getting any information on him."

"You might be surprised, but I'm not," Loki quipped. "His name is Thor Odinson. He's from Asgard, the 'realm eternal'. Quite a long way from this planet, indeed this solar system."

"You're telling me I've got an E.T. in my holding cells?" Coulson demanded.

Loki nodded. "He was banished for inciting a war," he offered. "The hammer is technically his, and yes, it is a weapon. It is forged from the heart of a dying star, if you're wondering what it's made of."

Coulson's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Agent Coulson, as far as most of Asgard is aware, this planet is still as it was when the Vikings, Celts and Wodes were forces to be reckoned with," Loki said with a sigh. "Odin sent Thor here because of his mistaken assumption that this world is still so primitive. A place where Thor would have no luxuries and would have to expend a great deal of time and effort to simply survive. A sort of penal colony. It isn't, and because he was raised to the feeling of entitlement, Thor is just charming enough and shameless enough that he would be able to live quite happily off the charity of others."

"Mr Lewis, if that actually is your name, and I'm beginning to have my suspicions that it isn't -"

"It is," Darcy assured Coulson immediately from just behind him. She'd had to go on a grocery run, and was blessed with fortunate timing. "Loki took my name when we got married. He's a Lewis. Legally."

"Fine," Coulson agreed. "Mr Lewis, what exactly can you tell me about this man who waltzed into our base and made my highly trained men look like a bunch of civilian mall-cops?"

"That, Agent Coulson, is a conversation that will need coffee," Loki assured the man. "Can I have your assurance that Thor will be moved to a padded cell with very thick walls? He is violent, and extremely well-trained, as you can attest to."

"Padded cells are generally reserved for those who are dangers to themselves due to insanity," Coulson countered carefully. "And they run the risk that we might not see something. We've got a few alternatives though."

Thor was drugged and transferred to a much more secure prison while Loki shared coffee with Agent Coulson and explained... nearly everything. Since that coffee was shared in the lab, and within hearing range of Jane and Erik, Coulson was also given a crash course on certain sciences that he wasn't even approaching being able to understand. The man took notes though. SHIELD had some very clever people working in it, after all, and he could pass on to them the stuff he didn't understand.

~oOo~

A new distraction from the cultivated normality of Foster's lab (because with SHIELD around, it wasn't the true normality that it had been) arrived a week later. It came in the form of Sif and the Warriors Three appearing just outside the town while Loki was supervising one of Louise's riding lessons.

It being daylight, the rainbow effect of the Bifrost wasn't quite as immediately obvious as it had been when Odin had so violently sent Thor down. The stormy effect was also lessened, as the quartet must have been willing travellers guided by Heimdall, rather than forcefully banished by… someone who had less experience in commanding the Bifrost.

"Agent Barton?" Loki called up to the roof when they came in sight of the lab.

"I see 'em," the archer who had been posted as head of security around the lab – at least, when Coulson wasn't there in person – answered. "Xena, Robin Hood, Jackie Chan, and uh, Big Reg," he settled on. Volstagg was apparently a little harder to pick a quick code-name for than the others.

Loki bit back a laugh at the names the agent had come up with for Sif and the Warriors Three, but his grin was unrestrained. Darcy, who was also in hearing range of that comment, did nothing to stifle her amused snort.

"All from Asgard," Loki supplied. "The Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three. Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg, respectively to your code names."

"Friendly?" Barton checked.

"They're not bad people," Loki allowed. "Thor's friends and followers, but asking questions before shooting would be preferable, as I am certain they will have news of what is happening in Asgard."

"I'll take your word for it, but I'm calling it in anyway, just in case," Barton replied frankly.

"I would expect no less. Louise, Princess, I'm afraid today's riding lesson is over."

"Loki!" Volstagg called out.

"Volstagg," Loki answered with a nod to her as he watched his baby girl dismount, before he vanished her beast and urged her to go inside to her mother. "Fandral, Hogun. Lady Sif. What brings you to Midgard?"

"We were hoping to find Thor," Fandral answered, the question hanging between them without being asked plainly.

"He's in prison," Loki answered frankly, and privately relished in their shocked, scandalised expressions. "He assaulted those who govern and guard this realm. He proved himself as arrogant, reckless and dangerous as he has ever been," he said reasonably. He had already spoken to them of these characteristics of Thor's that they so wilfully blinded themselves to. "And as he maintained to the questioning authorities that he was who he is, the mortals – who have long relegated us to myth – have concluded that he is also insane. Particularly as he is unable to prove any of his claims, nor prove himself otherwise through any of the forms of identification that are becoming standard in this realm."

"Why did you not speak for him!?" Sif demanded.

"Why should I?" Loki countered, quick as a whip. "Odin cast Thor out. Stripped him of his right to claim the name Odinson. Thor is, therefore, nothing to me."

"He is your brother," Fandral insisted.

"Yes," Loki agreed, almost sneering. "And when I came to Midgard and found him, I provided him with quarters and succour. By noon he had demanded a horse of me, and gone his own way."

"And you did not go with him?" Volstagg asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

"Unlike you, I did not come to Midgard for Thor's sake," Loki answered with a derisive scoff. "Of course I did not follow him."

"Then why did you come to Midgard?" Hogun demanded softly.

"To be with my family," Loki answered.

"But you just said -!" Fandral began.

"I know what I said," Loki cut him off. "I come to Midgard to be with my wife and daughter, whom I had promised two uninterrupted weeks of my time after Thor's coronation ceremony. It was interrupted a little at the beginning, yes, but that in no way negates my promise to the two of the three most important people in my life. My mother being the third, in case you were wondering."

At that moment, a pair of arms slid around his waist, and the familiar scent of Darcy's shampoo reached his nose.

"Talking about me?" she asked teasingly, and stretched up onto her toes so that she could kiss his cheek.

"Darcy, love, these are the Lady Sif, and the warriors Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral," Loki presented, indicating which name went with which person as he spoke. "And only insofar as telling them what I was doing on Midgard, since I hadn't come to be Thor's keeper."

"Mm, someone else's job now," Darcy said with a smile. "Just as well, really. I don't want a brutish, rude, bullying thug like him around our Louise."

The party of four from Asgard were completely gobsmacked. Eyes wide and jaws dropped as they gaped indelicately.

~Epilogue~

Loki sat, completely content, as he watched Clint Barton (he was off-duty, and therefore not to be referred to as 'Agent') awe Louise with his ability to juggle. Darcy was in his arms, and they were contemplating sneaking off to have some alone time together while Clint bedazzled their little girl with the skills he'd collected from his misspent youth.

It had been two years since Thor had been banished from Asgard by Odin. Clint had become a surrogate uncle to Louise since then, while her actual uncle had been released from SHIELD's cells and was currently working for them. Mostly for lack of anything more constructive to do, since he was still barred from Asgard, and SHIELD infrastructure wasn't really designed with the long-term holding of prisoners in mind – and Thor would only cause so, _so_ much trouble if they sent him to either a proper loony bin or high-security prison. SHIELD occasionally asked Loki to consult, but he knew better than to completely shackle himself to such an organisation, especially when he had slightly more than casual plans for world domination.

Darcy's quest for normative work – because as much as Jane appreciated her filing system and having access to Loki's brain, Darcy's interests had only led her to astrophysics for the laughs and the science credits she needed to graduate – led the Lewis family to New York. This suited Loki very well, since New York was where the UN building was (the one in America anyway), and he was still working on slowly, subtly, taking over the world.

Mostly for the fun of it.

Not that he was sticking to politics exclusively to build up a power base. Only a fool would think politics was the be-all and end-all as regards avenues for such ambitions. To ignore the potential of economics for becoming powerful would be foolishness. Likewise, to dabble in anything that would tarnish reputation in search of greater power than was ethically available would be a downfall to any such plan. Loki was not a fool (well, unless he was doing it on purpose, or there was chocolate fondue and his delectable Darcy involved). In any event, Loki's family was based in New York, and it was there that Louise had recently started school.

She only went for half a day three times a week at the moment, but it was her very first year of standardised education. It was also her first year as a big sister.

Something which the youngest Lewis felt like reminding his parents of that very moment, as the baby monitor gave a wail.

"Sounds like Danny's hungry," Darcy said with a sigh.

Loki eased himself out from behind her, kissed her forehead, and went to check on his son. So much for an opportunity to sneak off. Darcy's doctor had cleared her to safely resume her usual 'adult activities' just the day before. It seemed their son wasn't so inclined to give them the go-ahead.

Loki checked, then changed, his son's nappy before he grabbed the V-shaped pillow that Darcy used to rest Danny on while he fed. As well as a light blanket that would allow Darcy her modesty while their son claimed his fill. Barton wouldn't mean to look, but Louise would, then she'd draw her Uncle Clint's attention to the act, and the man would get all red around the neck and Loki would begin to feel vaguely homicidal. The only male personage apart from himself that was allowed to see Darcy's breasts in all their glory was his currently infant son.

And young Daniel would be loosing his privileges in a year or so when he was weaned.

The chime of the doorbell echoed out to the courtyard. Yes, it was almost heinously expensive to get a house with a proper-sized garden in New York City. That didn't mean it was completely impossible though, and when the one hunting for this perfect home for his family is Loki? As Darcy had previously noted, he wore more material wealth on a daily basis in Asgard than most people on Midgard were able to accumulate in a decade.

"I'll go see who it is," Loki said as he passed his son and the other accoutrement to Darcy.

She stole another kiss before he went.

"Sorry to disturb you at home, Mr Lewis."

"You know you're always welcome here Natasha," Loki countered with an easy smile. Clint had introduced his partner to them when they were moving out of Puente Antiguo. Louise had loved her on sight for her red hair, and upon further association had found other reasons to hold the woman up as a hero.

"I'm afraid it's not a social call," the once-Russian apologised.

"I'd guessed, from the way you called me Mr Lewis, rather than Loki," the trickster replied with an easy smile. "You've come to steal Clint away?"

Agent Romanov nodded shortly.

"Local? Foreign? Alien? Or can you not tell me anything?" Loki enquired politely as he led the Red-Room victim into his home.

"Actually, it's scare the newbies time again," Natasha corrected with a small smirk. "Once that's done though, we'll be leaving for an option four."

"Ah," he said, and pulled a face. "Can I offer you anything to make the job, the option four job, rather than the scare the newbies job, easier? I know SHIELD's own R and D generally kit you both out very well, but they don't know how to apply protection spells."

"Appreciated."

~The End~


End file.
